Title: wpdb::show_errors
Published: April 25, 2014
Last modified: August 20, 2026

---

# wpdb::show_errors( bool $show = true ): bool

## In this article

 * [Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#description)
    - [See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#see-also)
 * [Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#parameters)
 * [Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#return)
 * [Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#source)
 * [Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#related)
 * [Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#changelog)

[ Back to top](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#wp--skip-link--target)

Enables showing of database errors.

## 󠀁[Description](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#description)󠁿

This function should be used only to enable showing of errors.
[wpdb::hide_errors()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/hide_errors/)
should be used instead for hiding errors.

### 󠀁[See also](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#see-also)󠁿

 * [wpdb::hide_errors()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/hide_errors/)

## 󠀁[Parameters](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#parameters)󠁿

 `$show`booloptional

Whether to show errors.

Default:`true`

## 󠀁[Return](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#return)󠁿

 bool Whether showing of errors was previously active.

## 󠀁[Source](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#source)󠁿

    ```php
    public function show_errors( $show = true ) {
    	$errors            = $this->show_errors;
    	$this->show_errors = $show;
    	return $errors;
    }
    ```

[View all references](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/files/wp-includes/class-wpdb.php/)
[View on Trac](https://core.trac.wordpress.org/browser/tags/7.1/src/wp-includes/class-wpdb.php#L1875)
[View on GitHub](https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/blob/7.1/src/wp-includes/class-wpdb.php#L1875-L1879)

## 󠀁[Related](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#related)󠁿

| Used by | Description | 
| [drop_index()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/functions/drop_index/)`wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php` |

Drops a specified index from a table.

  | 
| [wpdb::__construct()](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/__construct/)`wp-includes/class-wpdb.php` |

Connects to the database server and selects a database.

  |

## 󠀁[Changelog](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/classes/wpdb/show_errors/?output_format=md#changelog)󠁿

| Version | Description | 
| [0.71](https://developer.wordpress.org/reference/since/0.71/) | Introduced. |

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